the thirty-eight

Is finally looking like what I dreamed. I can't believe it's come so far- comparison pic a year ago when first set up, and just nine months ago when I first removed the big decor piece, and had serious algae issues. It's come a long way!

Right now my filter intake is at an odd angle, I have the prefilter sponge horizontal. I took the intake pieces apart last maintenance day (friday) to scrub out algae with old toothbrush. There was a lot of green algae in there. And that's when I saw that my silicone job was failing. Coming loose, peeling off, a section of the crack already exposed. So I took off that elbow piece. I'm going to order a new prefilter kit, to replace those two pieces (part that the sponge fits over had a crack so for a long time now I've had the sponge sews into place). For now, the intake is horizontal. It doesn't seem to make much difference to the filter efficiency (as far as I can tell) and actually looks a little less obtrusive.

As for pics this week, I just have a few. Subwassertang basket is growing out. I want to shove it deeper into the substrate, to form a nice hideout for the kuhlis.

I've removed a few more of the oldest buce leaves that showed green spot algae and BBA tufts. So far the newer growth remains clear of that.

The green crypt featured in right of that pic, and central to this one- I still don't know exactly what it is.

There are two tiny java ferns growing on the driftwood log, that sprouted from bits of rhizome I missed when moving javas to the tenner. A few baby java ferns came loose from the fake skull in Oliver's tank, so I moved them back in here-

In case you can't spot them, I marked in this second pic. The one I moved over is larger, in the middle.

I pulled some more vallisneria out of the tank- to thin out the area they grow in. Sold these removed plants (held temporarily in a jar) plus a handful of duckweed, some elodea and hornwort trimmings to another local aquarist.

I've found the vallisneria corner is a great spot to drop sinking food to favor the kuhlis. All can reach it, but the barbs don't seem to like being crowded down among the val stems. They will reach it a few at a time, then turn and squirm back out into open water again. It seems to make them feel uncomfortable or unsafe to be down among the dense plants in that area. Kuhlis have no problem about it, they are always wiggling around among the val stems of their own accord. So when I want to make sure the kuhlis feed well, I drop the pellet or wafer into the vallisneria. The kuhlis definitely get most of it. I'll have to get a picture of that activity.